Good morning. Sunny with a high around 79 today. Clear skies and a low near 60 overnight.
Sports this weekend: The Nationals host San Diego today, tomorrow, and Sunday. The Washington Mystics host the Los Angeles Sparks tonight at CareFirst Arena. The Washington Spirit host Seattle Reign FC at Audi Field on Saturday. Old Glory DC host the Chicago Hounds at George Mason Stadium on Saturday. Loudoun United FC visit Monterey Bay FC on Saturday. The DC Defenders host the Orlando Storm at Audi Field Sunday.
Have a great weekend. You can find me on Bluesky, I’m @abeaujon.87 on Signal, and there’s a link to my email address below. This roundup is available as a morning email newsletter. Sign up here.
I can’t stop listening to:
Slickee Boys, “When I Go to the Beach.” The garage/surf-rock band that helped lay the groundwork for DC punk rock plays a show to celebrate their 50th anniversary at 9:30 Saturday with the Beatnik Flies and Birthday Girl DC.
Take Washingtonian Today with you! I keep ridiculously long playlists on Apple Music and on Spotify of this year’s music recommendations. Here are 2025’s songs (Apple, Spotify), too.
Here’s some administration news you might have blocked out:
The war: A deal for a new 60-day ceasefire and the framework for negotiations to end the US’s war with Iran is on the table—but will the guy who started this whole business three months ago sign it? President Trump “wants a couple of days to think about it,” a “U.S. official” says. (Axios) Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and the US would gradually lift its blockade of Iranian ports under the proposed memorandum of understanding. Discussions about Iran’s nuclear program would follow—Vice President JD Vance said yesterday the accord “could substantially set back their nuclear program.” (AP)
Pressure at home: The economic consequences of the war could prompt Trump to sign. US inflation rose to 3.8 percent in April, its highest rate since March 2023. (AP) Mortgage rates are at a nine-year high. (Reuters) Americans are saving less and spending more. (CNBC) Gas prices have eased a bit in the past few days but are still at a four-year high. (AAA) But! Trump “has increasingly adopted a posture of nonchalance” toward the challenges Americans face, saying preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon is more important. (NYT) The thing is, he doesn’t have a lot of room to negotiate. If the strait is reopened, that just restores the status quo before the war. And talks to end Iran’s nuclear program aren’t quite the same thing as Trump’s often-stated red lines—much less the “unconditional surrender” he demanded at the war’s onset. (Reuters) And his erratic style has scrambled events time and time again. (NYT) Meanwhile: US forces “have been targeted using commercially available location data.” (Reuters)
Priorities, priorities: Amid all this mess, US Treasury officials have moved “to design a $250 bill featuring the president’s portrait,” an initiative that’s already prompted the reassignment of a printing director who pointed out problems like the fact that US law prevents living people from being represented on currency. (Washington Post) Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he didn’t “think that there’s anything untoward” about the project. (Hill) And over at the Department of Justice, the criminal probe into E. Jean Carroll is centering around her statements about who funded her case against Trump—and contributions to her legal bills from the billionaire and Democratic donor Reid Hoffman. (Washington Post)
Immigration: Airlines and hotels are kind of freaking out about Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin‘s plan to throttle customs at airports in so-called “sanctuary cities”—the World Cup starts in a couple of weeks, for instance, and fans may want to fly to some of those locales to watch games. (CNBC) The situation outside an ICE facility in Newark has gotten increasingly fraught this week—agents “pushed a protester into the path of a moving truck” as activists tried to block entrance and egress. (amNY) DOJ sued Massachusetts, which won’t issue confidential license plates to ICE personnel, who it notes are mostly engaged in civil law enforcement. (WBUR)
Administration perambulation: The White House hasn’t released any results from Trump’s latest visit to Walter Reed, which he’s now billing as a “6 month physical.” (CBS News) Former Attorney General Pam Bondi will speak with lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee members this morning about how she handled the government’s files on the deceased, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. The interview falls short of the sworn testimony some on the panel sought. (Politico) The White House released a proposal yesterday that “would give political appointees the final word on federal research grants and other funding across government agencies.” (Scientific American) Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett‘s house in Fairfax County was targeted with a false “swatting” attack Wednesday. (NBC News) Dell’s new $9.7 billion deal with the Pentagon follows Trump’s purchase of more than $1 million worth of the company’s stock earlier this year. (NYT) The No Kings movement announced plans for a national protest on June 14, Trump’s 80th birthday and also Flag Day. (Hill) The administration hired a Maryland firm to apply “an unusually thick layer of nearly pure gold” to the statues on Memorial Bridge as part of Trump’s “beautification” initiative in DC. (Notus) Martina McBride pulled out of July’s planned “Great American State Fair” on the National Mall, joining the Commodores, Morris Day & the Time, and even Milli Vanilli in spurning the event. Vanilla Ice is still on the schedule, though. (Billboard) Bret Michaels just dropped out. (Carl Quintanilla/Bluesky)
Cool Listing: A Reston home that feels like a treehouse
This mid-century-modern post-and-beam house with glass walls surrounded by trees gives the illusion of living in a particularly chic treehouse. The three-bedroom, three-bathroom house feels like a vacation year-round. It’s listed at $1,050,000, and you can see more photos here.
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
• Brisa, a coastal Latin American restaurant, will open in Buzzard Point this summer. Chef Carlos Delgado of Causa and Maru San is a partner, as is the group behind La Vie.
• June will offer so many fun things to do and see, including St. Vincent with the NSO at Wolf Trap, Jill Scott at MGM National Harbor, and Wale at Nationals Park.
• New dining and lodging options in Ocean City, Rehoboth Beach, and other mid-Atlantic summertime destinations.
• Sonny Styles, Carly Fiorina, and Chandrani Ghosh are all invited to this month’s imaginary dinner party.
Local news links:
Star wars: Notus’s plan to rebrand as the Star next week has hit a snag: New York Sun publisher Dovid Efune plans to debut a publication called the Washington Star and has filed a trademark infringement action against Notus over the name. Notus is funded by Robert Allbritton, whose dad owned the Washington Star until it closed in 1981. (NYT)
• A fatal crash in Stafford County has closed all southbound lanes of I-95 this morning. (NBC4 Washington)
• Trump intends to keep National Guard troops ambling around DC indefinitely and will add to their numbers this summer. The milling troops “look great,” he said. (WTOP)
• 14-year-old Shrey Parikh of Rancho Cucamonga, California, won the Scripps National Spelling Bee in DC yesterday. (AP)
• DC cops will enforce a youth curfew in the U Street corridor this weekend. (WTOP)
• Bruce Springsteen announced during his concert Wednesday at Nationals Park that a politically charged show called Power to the People will be held at Merriweather Post Pavilion on October 3. The event will feature Foo Fighters, the Dave Matthews Band, Tom Morello, and lots more artists. (Washington Post)
• Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the US will spend around $466 million to make improvements to Union Station, a sharp step-down from the Biden administration’s $10 billion plan. (WTOP)
• Conservative radio host John Fredericks is running for a Republican office in DC. (Washington Post)
• WMATA “says it has handed out hundreds of citations and made nearly two dozen arrests since beginning its crackdown on bus fare evasion this week.” (NBC4 Washington)
• More drama in Purcellville, Virginia, where a judge suspended the town’s vice mayor and town manager amid criminal charges. (NBC4 Washington)
• Police in Fairfax say the driver of a car shot someone riding an e-bike during an apparent road rage incident. (Fox 5)
• Two jet bridges collided at Dulles around 4:20 p.m. yesterday. (DC News Now)
• A tree fell through the roof of a home in Pasadena, Maryland. (DC News Now)
• Panini World Cup albums and stickers will be available at Giant. This is my first World Cup where my kids will be too old for these books—but I might just get one anyway? (PoPville)
• One bald eagle is dead and and three are injured after they were rescued in Stafford County this week. Lead poisoning—of bald eagles! what is this world coming to?—appears to be involved. (WUSA9)
Weekend event picks:
Friday: Dancers from the Washington Ballet perform at CityCenterDC tonight and tomorrow.
Saturday: Ari Lennox plays a homecoming show at MGM National Harbor.
Sunday: Oontz! Oontz! Oontz! It’s the second day of the Project Glow festival at the RFK campus.
See lots more picks for the weekend from Briana Thomas, who writes our Things to Do newsletter.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
